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The NA LCS 2018 Season Primer

POSTED BY Ram Ronquillo ON January 13, 2018

The North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) is the second region to announce that it was entering franchising. The announcement last year meant that similar to the Chinese League of Legends Pro League, teams will have a permanent spot in the league. Unlike the LPL though, the NA LCS remains to have 10 teams.

Along with this change, the NA LCS also goes back to its roots with a double round robin best-of-one format coming from a best-of-three format last year. The reason to the return to the best-of-one is similar to that of the EU LCS, where Riot wants more viewers to catch the different games. The change also allows them to broadcast the games during the weekend, in North America.

The franchising also meant a change in the Challenger Series which will be replaced with the Academy League. The new Academy League will work as a developmental league for the 10 teams.

Some teams to keep an eye on in the NA LCS are Team Liquid, Team SoloMid, and Counter Logic Gaming. Three tenured teams in the league had an interesting offseason. Team Liquid put together a seemingly good team on paper despite a complete overhaul from last year’s roster. Team SoloMid on the other hand brought on board the bottom duo from Europe, Zven and mithy as well as the talented young jungler, MikeYeung. Lastly, Counter Logic Gaming surprisingly parted ways with their long time support and captain, Aphromoo. In his place, former TSM support Biofrost takes his place.

The NA LCS looks much more exciting with the 10 teams as a constant. Whether or not they will improve and finally find more success internationally is another issue on its own.

The NA season begins next Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 6 AM (GMT+8) with Team Liquid facing the defending champions, Team SoloMid. The broadcast will be live on Twitch and Youtube.